• Rubio says “premature” to talk of new polls for Venezuela.
• Streets quiet amid anxiety over next developments.
• Vice president takes over country as interim leader.
  

A top Venezuelan official declared on Sunday that the country’s government would stay unified behind President Nicolas Maduro, whose capture by the US has sparked deep uncertainty about what is next for the oil-rich South American nation.

Maduro is in a New York detention centre awaiting a Monday court appearance on drug charges, after US President Donald Trump ordered his removal and said the US would take control of Venezuela. But in Caracas, top officials in Maduro’s government, who have called the detentions of Maduro and his wife Cilia Flores a kidnapping, were still in charge.

“Here, the unity of the revolutionary force is more than guaranteed, and here there is only one president, whose name is Nicolas Maduro Moros. Let no one fall for the enemy’s provocations,” Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello said in an audio shared by the ruling PSUV socialist party on Sunday as he urged calm.

Images of the 63-year-old Maduro blindfolded and handcuffed on Saturday stunned Venezuelans. The action is Washington’s most controversial intervention in Latin America since the invasion of Panama 37 years ago.

Vice President Delcy Rodriguez — who also serves as oil minister — has taken over as interim leader with the blessing of Venezuela’s top court, though she has said Maduro remains president.

Because of her connections with the private sector and her deep knowledge of oil, the country’s top source of revenue, Rodriguez has long been considered the most pragmatic member of Maduro’s inner circle, but she has publicly contradicted Trump on his claims she is willing to work with the US.

The Venezuelan government has said for months that Trump’s pressure campaign is an effort to take possession of the country’s vast natural resources, especially its oil, and officials have made much of Trump’s Saturday comments on the subject, when he said major US oil companies would move in.

“We are outraged because in the end everything was revealed — it was revealed that they only want our oil,” added Cabello, who has close ties to the military.

Venezuela’s state-run oil company PDVSA is asking some of its joint ventures to cut back crude output by shutting down oilfields or groups of wells amid an export paralysis, three sources close to the decision told Reuters.

Oil exports from the OPEC country remain at a standstill since the US last month announced a blockade on sanctioned tankers moving in and out of Venezuelan waters and the seizure of two oil cargoes.

Once one of the most prosperous nations in Latin America, Venezuela’s economy nosedived further under Maduro, sending about one in five Venezuelans abroad in one of the world’s biggest exoduses.

‘US ready to work with new authorities’

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the Trump administration will work with the existing Venezuelan leadership.

His comments indicated that Washington is not seeking complete regime change and sought to clarify Trump’s earlier statement that the US will “run” the Latin American country of about 30 million people.

Rubio told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that the US was fighting drug traffickers, “not a war against Venezuela.”

Despite the success of the initial US operation, questions mounted over Trump’s strategy.

The US president on Saturday indicated deep, long-lasting US involvement centred on securing access to the world’s largest proven oil reserves.

“We’re going to run the country” until a transition can be made, he said, also insisting that military “boots on the ground” remained a possibility.

Rubio did multiple television interviews Sunday morning to make clear that Washington is not looking for upheaval.

He said Washington is ready to work with Rodriguez and the rest of Maduro’s cabinet — as long as they adhere to US demands.

“We’re going to make an assessment on the basis of what they do, not what they say publicly in the interim,” he told CBS News.

Underlining the lack of focus on democracy or desire to help long-backed opposition candidates to get power, Rubio told NBC it was “premature” to talk of new elections for Venezuela.

Muted streets

Maduro opponents in Venezuela have been wary of celebrating his seizure and extraction, and the presence of security forces seemed, if anything, lighter than usual on Sunday.

Despite the nervous mood, some bakeries and coffee shops were open and joggers and cyclists were out like a normal Sunday morning. Some citizens were stocking up on essentials.

“Yesterday I was very afraid to go out, but today I had to. This situation caught me without food and I need to figure things out. After all, Venezuelans are used to enduring fear,” said a single mother in oil city Maracaibo, who said she bought rice, vegetables and tuna. “If this is necessary for my son to grow up in a free country, I’ll keep enduring the fear.”

The owner of a small supermarket in the same city said the business did not open on Saturday after US Special Forces swooped in on helicopters to seize Maduro after strikes on military installations in Caracas and elsewhere.

“Today we’ll work until noon since we’re close to many neighbourhoods — people have nowhere to buy food and we need to help them,” the shop owner said.

To the disappointment of Venezuela’s opposition, Trump has given short shrift to the idea of 58-year-old opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado taking over, saying she lacked support.

Machado was banned from standing in the 2024 election but has said her ally Edmundo Gonzalez, 76, who the opposition and some international observers say overwhelmingly won that vote, has a democratic mandate to take the presidency.

It is unclear just how Trump plans to oversee Venezuela and his focus on foreign affairs runs the risk of alienating some supporters who oppose foreign interventions.

While many Western nations oppose Maduro, there were many calls for the US to respect international law and resolve the crisis diplomatically. There were also questions over the legality of seizing a foreign head of state. Democrats said they were misled at recent Congress briefings and have demanded a plan for what is to follow.

The UN Security Council planned to meet on Monday to discuss the US attack, which Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described as a dangerous precedent. Russia and China, both major backers of Venezuela, have criticised the US.

Maduro was indicted in 2020 on US charges including narco-terrorism conspiracy. He has always denied any criminal involvement.

• US veto power prevents accountability at UN Security Council.
• US cites self-defence under UN Charter Article 51.
• Legal experts argue US operation violated international law.

UNITED NATIONS: The legality of the US capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro will be under the spotlight at the United Nations on Monday, but Washington is unlikely to face strong criticism from allies over its military operation in the Latin American state.

The 15-member UN Security Council will meet on Monday after US Special Forces seized Maduro in an operation on Saturday that knocked out power in parts of Caracas and struck military installations. Venezuelan authorities also said it was deadly. Maduro is now in detention in New York awaiting a court appearance on Monday on drug charges.

Russia, China and other Venezuelan allies have accused the United States of violating international law, but US allies – many of whom opposed Maduro – have been less vocal about any concerns over the use of military force.

“Judging by the reactions from European leaders to date, I suspect that US allies will equivocate exquisitely in the Security Council,” said Richard Gowan, director of global issues and institutions at the International Crisis Group, a think-tank.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres views the US operation as setting “a dangerous precedent,” his spokesperson said on Saturday. Many legal experts also say the US action was illegal, although Washington will be able to block any attempts by the UN Security Council to hold it accountable.

Washington cites self-defence

In the wake of the US operation, European states have largely called for international law to be respected without specifically calling out Washington, though French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said the US had violated “the principle of not resorting to force, that underpins international law.”

The UN Charter states that members “shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state.” There are currently 193 members of the United Nations.

US Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz on Sunday cited Article 51 of the UN Charter, which says that nothing “shall impair the inherent right of individual or collective self-defence if an armed attack occurs against a member of the United Nations.”

“In this case, you have a drug kingpin, an illegitimate leader indicted in the United States, coordinating with the likes of China, Russia, Iran, terrorist groups like Hezbollah, pumping drugs, thugs, and weapons into the United States of America, threatening to invade its neighbours,” he told Fox News.

However, legal experts say the US operation was illegal because it lacked UN Security Council authorisation, did not have Venezuelan consent, and does not constitute self-defence against an armed attack.

“The action violated international law,” said Tom Dannenbaum, a professor at Stanford Law School. “Serious legal objections to Maduro’s regime do not eliminate the need for a legal basis to use military force in Venezuela.”

US veto shields Washington

But Washington cannot be held accountable for any violation by the UN Security Council, which is charged with maintaining international peace and security. The US wields a veto – along with Russia, China, Britain and France – so can block action.

Maduro was indicted in 2020 on US charges including narco-terrorism conspiracy. He has always denied any criminal involvement.

“Even if Maduro were to be responsible for the smuggling of some drugs into the US, such smuggling of drugs does not constitute an armed attack and does not authorise the US to use force in self-defence,” said Milena Sterio, a professor at Cleveland State University College of Law.

She also said Washington “cannot exercise extra-territorial jurisdiction to arrest individuals anywhere it pleases.”

Adil Haque, a professor at Rutgers Law School, also said the US capture of Maduro “was an illegal infringement of the inviolability and immunity of a sitting Head of State, who may lack democratic legitimacy but was clearly effectively discharging his official functions on behalf of his State.”

Cuba says 32 of its citizens killed in Maduro extraction

The Cuban government said on Sunday that 32 of its citizens were killed during the US raid on Venezuela to extract Maduro for prosecution in the United States.

Havana said there would be two days of mourning on January 5 and 6 in honour of those killed and said funeral arrangements would be announced.

The Cuban government statement gave few details, but said all the dead were members of the Cuban armed forces and intelligence agencies.

“True to their responsibilities concerning security and defence, our compatriots fulfilled their duty with dignity and heroism and fell, after fierce resistance, in direct combat against the attackers or as a result of bombings on the facilities,” the statement said.

Cuba has provided some security for Maduro since he came to power. It was not clear how many Cubans were guarding the Venezuelan president when they died and how many may have perished elsewhere.

Maduro, 63, and his wife Cilia Flores were seized by US forces in the Venezuela capital Caracas on Saturday and flown to the United States. Maduro is being held in a New York detention center awaiting a Monday court appearance on drug charges.